Sony Cyber-shot DSC-N2
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Written by Gordon Laing
Outdoor scene - Sony N2 vs Canon A640 vs Fujifilm F30
Sony Cybershot DSC-N2 |
Canon PowerShot A640 |
Fujifilm FinePix F30 | ||
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1/800, f4.5, 100 ISO |
1/640, f4, 100 ISO |
1/420, f5.6, 100 ISO | ||
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1/800, f4.5, 100 ISO |
1/640, f4, 100 ISO |
1/420, f5.6, 100 ISO | ||
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1/800, f4.5, 100 ISO |
1/640, f4, 100 ISO |
1/420, f5.6, 100 ISO |
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At first glance the Sony N2 crops look very sharp and detailed, especially the last example of the tennis courts, but upon closer examination the camera appears to be applying more sharpening than is strictly necessary. The mountain ridge in the first crop looks slightly unreal, while some of the buildings in the middle crop have undesirable artefacts. That said, the overall image quality is very good and most artefacts wouldn’t be noticed on smaller prints. It’s also possible to reduce the N2’s sharpening by a notch in the menus. Certainly, if you like punchy images out of the camera, the N2’s Standard colour mode will keep you happy, and there’s even a Vivid colour option if you’re after something stronger still. If you prefer more subdued results though, you may wish to try the N2’s Natural colour mode or decreasing the contrast and sharpness settings. The good news is the N2’s lens is well-corrected to the corners when focused at infinity and when set to low ISOs, you can enjoy highly detailed images. |
Outdoor / Resolution / Noise / Noise 2 / Corner sharpness / Fringe & macro / Geometry / Vignetting
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To compare real-life performance we shot the same scene with the Sony N2, Canon A640 and Fujifilm F30 within a few moments of each other using their best quality JPEG settings and 100 ISO sensitivity. Each camera was set to Program and multi-zone metering for this test to compare how the same scene would be evaluated.
Each lens was adjusted to deliver the same field of view, although differences in their actual zoom positions resulted in slight variations. The Fujifilm result also shows a larger area due to its lower resolution sensor.
The image above was taken with the Sony Cyber-shot DSC N2 at 9mm f4.5 with a sensitivity of 100 ISO; the original JPEG measured 4.32MB. The Canon A640 and Fujifilm F30 images measured 4.89 and 2.99MB respectively.
The crops are taken from the upper left, center and lower right portions of the originals and presented here at 100%.
